The Purpose of Branding
Does this orange color seem familiar to you?
Maybe you were able to identify it right away, or maybe you just know you’ve seen it before. Your brain may have automatically made the connection if you have a sweet tooth… Or, if you’re a hyper-focused designer like me (whose party trick is being able to identify brand colors and typefaces; people hate playing The Logo Game with me), then you may have recognized it instinctually. This is Reese’s orange. Literally, this orange is trademarked by Hershey’s. No other confectionary competitor is allowed to use this precise hue. Isn’t that specific? By establishing their brand with just a single, extremely distinguished color, Hershey’s has perfectly illustrated a key component to design: that a brand is not just or necessarily confined to a name. A brand is a foundation to an entire identity, story, and/or visibility in any given marketplace.
What is Branding
When I am crafting a brand’s image, I like to think of it as planting a seed. I see the brand name as the seed and the seed needs to develop strong roots to become the basis for everything else that could grow. These roots are the colors, tones, saturation, and fonts that bring the logos to fruition. Then come the branches of what is growing, and I see those are the content and messaging that will ultimately be produced for the brand. If you’re not into plant metaphors, just know that there is a whole lifecycle for successful, creative branding to occur and each designer likely has a vision of how they bring something to life.
I design every asset and component of a brand with consistency in mind. Small design cues throughout the process usually become essential elements to connecting different pieces and tie a theme (which is usually developed along the way) together. For example, if I always use organic, flowing lines for a brand, then I would avoid using harsh, geometric lines at any point which would break the sense of unity and cohesiveness necessary for a strong image.
Successful Branding
Successfully branding a company is helpful to many facets of business, not just from a design perspective. A strong brand image can convey professionalism, establish messaging, and build a reputation. Curating a unique look and imagery from all assets of design and implementing it across messaging and products helps people remember you and your brand. My goal is to create such a strong design that people begin to recognize the brand without even seeing the company name. (Like Reese’s orange).
How to Build a Brand
When I start to build a brand’s image, the main thing I focus on is tone. Whether we are thinking of the hue of a color, or the mood of a message, understanding and identifying tone is vital to building a successful brand. As a designer, I find it very valuable to make sure everyone involved in the curation of a brand is on the same page about what the tone is. Different colors can relay different tones. Certain imagery will fit one voice but not another (this means spending a little extra time on stock imagery sites). Even typefaces have personalities that should be considered when branding your business. I know this probably sounds oddly specific to non-designers, but stick with me! Check out the typefaces below for an example.
Imagine these two different examples have actual voices that are saying "Hello!” to you. When you hear the first example in your head, what does it sound like? Maybe friendly and kind of quirky. What about number two? Does the second “Hello” have a more serious, professional tone? These can be different for everyone but there is a science to design and how our brains compute and narrate different fonts.
Certain colors evoke different emotions and oftentimes are affiliated with specific feelings (e.g., blue is sad, red is mad, yellow is happy). For this reason, it is imperative to select the right color for your brand. Additionally, it is necessary to consider this color in conjunction with your typeface. Some brands require an element that is softer, playful, and fun, while others should appear more professional to be taken seriously or considered important. See below for some real examples of these ideas implemented.
Serif fonts (as seen below) are recognized in the design world as having a classical look and deemed appropriate for brands that value more traditional aesthetics. This type of font is the oldest typeface style and therefore associated with whatever is trustworthy and timeless. The use of the color red stimulates a sense of significance.
Sans-serif fonts (as seen below) have been more modernized and what designers might consider “stylish” in recent decades – specifically among tech brands. This typeface genre arrived in the 19th century and is generally understood as illustrating a less traditional aesthetic. A sans-serif font suggests a certain minimalism that is sought after by certain businesses. A bright color, like this green hue, conveys something youthful, fun, and exuberant without being overly intense.
It is important to understand these possible perceptions of color, font, and tone. Even if the public is not aware of the subconscious judgments they are making and the biases we all innately possess about design cues — they still exist — and being mindful of them is key in the curation of designing your brand.
How Associations Can Optimize Branding
As I briefly touched on, building a brand identity is vital to creating a consistent voice and therefore to any organization’s messaging. This is extremely helpful for associations to consider across all aspects of their infrastructure. A brand’s identity is how associations will portray themselves and their mission and ultimately how they will communicate and engage with their membership.
Because we know that an audience does not always perceive the brand exactly how we intended, we must understand Brand Image. The “brand image” is how an audience will perceive a certain brand regardless of the intention behind it, which, to a certain extent, is out of a designer or association’s control. Having a solid brand identity mitigates some of the unpredictable perceptions of brand image. That is why it is so important for the brand identity to be established and consistently implemented across all communication channels – it increases the likelihood that the goals and mission of an association will be “correctly” interpreted by its members.
Here at Ngage, we have embarked on several rebranding campaigns to strengthen brand identities and better align the vision of a client group with their brand desired brand identity. The very act of updating or reenvisioning a brand can signify a willingness to adapt and change as necessary to fit member and marketplace needs. This becomes vital when thinking about loyalty, retention, and engagement,
Aside from the main brand identity of an association, sometimes what we call “sub-branding” is necessary to differentiate themes and tones for specific events, campaigns, and programs. Creating a unique logo and image for an event or campaign helps establish a unique and separate feel as is likely desired. The sub-brand for a campaign or event should not venture too far from the main brand identity but could effectively differentiate its significance or novelty.
Let’s look at an example:
For MICNP’s NP Week, I created a new logo using colors and elements from the main logo and added some new identifying twists that were then pulled across all graphics and assets for the event.
Notice the clean, derived similarities? But also see the difference? I have fun recrafting parts of this logo’s theme to design a new, specialized brand identity for something else.
Thanks for following along. If I could only say one thing about the design process and branding as it relates to an association’s identity: don’t underestimate its subtle power and always consult with a designer as you build or redesign your brand!